DISCLAIMER: I do not own Voltron, it all belongs to WEP. Please don't sue me, I'm broke!
"Lost Memories"
Part 2
He didn't care how he landed, as long as he got down there to Allura. Landing his lion next to hers, he jumped out, and ran to the Blue Lion.
"ALLURA" screamed Keith as he was opening the hatch door to her lion.
The cockpit of the Blue Lion was full of smoke with twisted metal everywhere. It was hard for a frantic Keith to find her, but he finally did under some buried metal. He was overwhelmed with nausea when he saw her, but suppressed it. Her helmet had came off during impact, and had major head trauma. He was afraid to touch her with all of the blood on her face and on the floor. He finally snapped out of his shock and checked her for a pulse. She barely had one; he wanted to get her out, but was fearful that if he did she would be paralyzed.
"Keith!" yelled Lance, "Coran sent a med team to these coordinates!"
"Tell them to hurry, she barely has a pulse!" hollered Keith.
"Can you get her out?" asked Lance.
"I could, but I'm afraid she's got a spinal cord injury," replied Keith. "Get Hunk, we need to clear a path for the medics. I'll start from this end."
Keith, Hunk, and Lance managed to clear a path in Allura's cockpit. The med team arrived, once they finished the path, and began working on Allura to stabilize her for flight. Lance and Hunk had to drag Keith out for the medics to have more room to do their job on Allura. She had flat-lined several times, but each time was revived. They finally were able to stabilize her vital signs enough to air lift her back to the castle.
"I'm sorry Captain," said a medic, "there's no room for you and she needs a doctor STAT!"
"What!" yelled Keith, "she's my fiancée for crying out loud!"
"Keith," coaxed Lance as he grabbed Keith's arm and pulled him aside, "just fly back to the castle in your Lion. They need to leave now and there's no time for arguments. We'll take care of everything here."
Keith didn't have a chance to argue his point when he saw the air unit lift off and fly towards the castle. He jumped into his lion and flew back as fast as Black Lion could take him. He had gotten to the medical wing too late, he couldn't find her, and he had no idea where she was. Luckily for him, Dr. Gorma's nurse saw him and updated him on Allura's condition.
"Right now, Princess Allura is in stable but critical condition," explained the nurse. "She has multiple head fractures and Dr. Gorma is attempting to relieve the fluid pressure around her brain."
"Will she live?" asked Keith, horrified at himself for even thinking it.
"I don't know," answered the nurse, "Dr. Gorma will talk to you and Coran as soon as he is finished operating on Princess Allura. There's nothing you can do right now, except pray for her. It's up to her to decide if she wants to live or not. Please just have a seat and wait, there's coffee just around the corner."
Keith took the nurses' advice and sat down to wait. Wait, that was all he had to do, but it was so hard to. Then he saw him come around that corner with coffee in hand. He wondered how much Coran hated him now, now that Allura, their Allura could die at any moment.
"Coffee?" asked Coran as he handed Keith a cup.
"Thanks," Keith said dryly and setting the cup aside.
There was a long awkward silence between the two until Coran spoke up, "It's not your fault Keith."
He couldn't believe how calm Coran was, and couldn't understand why Coran didn't blame him. Why didn't he, why couldn't Coran blame him. It would be so easy to, God knows he's endured more than this. All Keith could do was repeat that statement over and over again like a madman. He had expected Coran to blame for everything, he knew he could deal with it, but he couldn't deal with it not being his fault.
Coran saw this young man, a Captain and the future King of Arus, breakdown. He felt sorry for him, for what must be going through his mind. Keith's hands were covering his face, elbows on his knees, and all he saw of him were intermitted teardrops falling, from his bowed head, to the floor. He outstretched his arm and placed his hand on Keith's shoulder, letting him know that he's not alone. Coran knew that Keith needed to hear that it wasn't his fault, or he would be blaming himself for the rest of his life.
~Why can't he let me blame myself for this, it's my fault!"~ he thought as he felt Coran's comforting hand on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault," said Coran, "you did all you could at the moment. Let's just pray that Allura pulls through."
"Where's Nanny? Has she heard?" asked Keith, trying to calm down.
"She's preparing Allura's room, which is down the hall. And yes . . . she knows." Coran replied dryly. "Although, I don't know how she is dealing with the news."
"You!" yelled Nanny as Keith and Coran looked up to see a furious Nanny. "You, you call yourself a soldier when she's in there suffering. Why weren't you there?!"
"Nanny, calm down," coaxed Coran, "just calm down."
Nanny saw Keith breakdown again when she blamed him for Allura's accident. First she was pleased to see him hurting, but her instincts kicked in to comfort him.
"Keith, please, I'm sorry," whispered a crying Nanny with her arm around his shoulders, "it's not you fault, no one is to blame. Would Allura blame you for what has happened? No, no she wouldn't. She loves you Keith."
"I . . . I need some air. Excuse me." Said Keith and left to enter Allura's empty medical room.
Lance, Pidge, and Hunk were running down the halls in the medical wing. All of them with questions to be answered.
"How is she," asked Lance.
"We don't know," replied Coran.
"Where's Keith," asked Hunk.
"He's in Allura's room, down the hall," said Nanny with tears in her eyes, "let him be, he needs to sort things out."
"Does anyone know anything?" asked Pidge.
"I'm sorry Pidge," replied Coran, "Dr. Gorma hasn't finished operating on Allura yet."
Lance decided to leave the group in search of Keith. Finding him in Allura's room, yet to be occupied, staring out onto the stars. He stopped at the edge of the bed and looked Keith over, he was a complete wreck.
"How are you holding up?" asked Lance, careful not to push the wrong buttons.
"I'm doing the best I can," replied Keith, "I'll be out of here in a few minutes, I just want to be alone for awhile."
Lance complied with his request and left him to return to the waiting area with Coran, Nanny, Pidge, and Hunk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By sunrise, there was some news, since the accident, on Allura's condition. Keith began to pace, wondering when Dr. Gorma was going to talk to them. Keith could have sworn he saw something go into Allura's room, but was too tired and worried to do anything about it.
"I'm sorry for keeping you on edge for so long," said Dr. Gorma donning a surgical gown. "First of all, Allura is stable but is still considered to be in critical condition. The swelling around her brain has stopped and is now returning back to normal. She has six different skull fractures, a few broken ribs, and is badly bruised. Right now she is in coma, and I don't know when she will wake. If she does wake, then we will find out how much damage to her brain was sustained. Until then I won't know anything."
"Can we see her?" asked Pidge.
"Yes, but one at a time," replied Dr. Gorma. "But I would like to warn you all, that you might not recognize her at first."
"If she does have brain damage . . .," asked Keith, "what . . . what will be different?"
"I don't know Keith," replied Dr. Gorma, "it can range from memory loss to being completely brain dead. If you want to Keith, you can see her first."
"Thank you," replied Keith and followed Dr. Gorma to Allura's room.
"Talk to her," instructed Dr. Gorma, "it'll help you and her."
"How?" asked Keith in bewilderment.
"Talk to her as if she were awake," replied Dr. Gorma, "she can hear you. Hearing your voice might help her come out of coma."
He entered her room, walked over to the bed, and looked at her sleeping so peacefully. He was afraid, scared that if he touched her, she would hurt. Part of her face was completely black and blue, an eye swollen, and part of her hair had been shaven off with a bandage around her head. He noticed all of the tubes and wires connected to her to keep her alive. One tube was in her mouth and connected to another one which helped her breathe. An I-V was in her arm, wire patches connected to her chest kept monitor on her heartbeat. The last thing he noticed was that Dr. Gorma and the nurses had left the engagement ring on. That gave him hope, the hope that she would recover in time for their wedding, even though they hadn't set a date. He sat beside her on the bed, took her hand into his, placed it on his leg, and covered her hand with his.
"Hi, Ally," Keith said softly and caressed a slightly bruised cheek with the back of his hand, "I love you . . . Dr. Gorma told me to talk to you as if you were awake and well, it's not easy . . . God Ally wake up . . . I need you."
Tears were beginning to form in his eyes again, and frustration was building within himself. He didn't know what else to do and decided to move down into the chair next to her bed. He laid his head down next to her hand and cried, crying tears of pain, frustration, and loneliness.
To Be Continued
Author's Note: Please read & review. Tell me what y'all think. No flames please.